As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
This trip started as a whim! I left New Orleans about five months ago and decided about a month and a half ago that I needed to go home. I've lost almost 30lbs because the food in Orlando, while diverse, is nowhere near as fattening as the food in New Orleans. (And I live in a 3rd floor walk up and I'm waiting tables.) I've also been working non-stop. I managed to get myself promoted to lead server with only 3 months on the job. They call--I go to the store. They call--I come in early. They call--I come into work on my day off. I love my job and have no problem with all the extras!
I started looking at convention dates in Orlando and picked a few days that I thought I could get away without anyone knowing I was gone . . . this would come back to haunt me. I announced that I was taking x,y,z days off to go to New Orleans and one of my new friends, Jese, said, "Hey, I want to go with you." And a trip was born.
I double checked the dates with Jese, and went ahead and booked two flights, a two night stay at the New Orleans Marriott--thank you Priceline, and a rental car for three days and cleared my three days off with the GM.
Little did I know that two days after I booked my vacation that the corporate sales girl would book a whole restaurant buy out for 275 people--requiring costumed staff and all kinds of craziness. Oopps! I let the GM know that no matter what I wasn't going to be there and that he'd be one short in the kitchen too. He wasn't thrilled. Someone else was going to have to be in charge of organizing and running the party. Not. Me. And they would be short a sushi guy in the kitchen. No. Jese.
I booked the first flight out of Orlando at 8:45am and the last flight back to Orlando at 6:30pm to maximize our time. Then I started planning.
Trips to New Orleans, which could have many aspects, for me are centered around food and friends. So the first thing I did was book our meals: Cochon for lunch, Atchafalaya for dinner and Bayona for dinner. I talked to some friends and made some plans and added brunch on the first day with my girlfriend Kelly at La Petit Grocery. I also made an appointment to have my hair cut by my stylist of 12 years, Savannah Blue.
This trip really starts on Friday--so I'll be back to update tomorrow with all the details of the day before the trip and the beginning of our little adventure.
Sounds great, Heather! It'll be great for you to visit your old home and take a break from the non-stop work. Perfect timing getting the vacation cleared just before the big booking came in!
Congratulations on being promoted so soon, and on the weight-loss.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Sounds great, Heather! It'll be great for you to visit your old home and take a break from the non-stop work. Perfect timing getting the vacation cleared just before the big booking came in!
Congratulations on being promoted so soon, and on the weight-loss.
I realized this morning that I wrote the first installment as if the trip hadn't happened yet . . . we've been and are back and had a great time!
It was perfect timing! Thanks so much!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start Heather!
More coming in a moment!
Quote:
Originally Posted by scrappyjae
Have a great time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MontiMouse
Sounds like fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Sounds great!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great Start!!
It was a great time!
Quote:
Originally Posted by skateycat
can't wait to hear and see all the great stuff you were doing....and you look fantastic, my dear! all the hard work has paid off.
Thanks! I have been working hard! Just got home from the gym!
Okay, so I realized that I wrote the first installment like it was a Pre-trip report! It isn't we've been to New Orleans and are back. I'm working on getting the photos uploaded to photobucket. I'm about 1/2 done--my apartment complex wifi is slow, but it's also free.
Back to the report! I requested off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday at work and was surprised when I also got Saturday off. Great! I'll have time to get all the errands done and relax before we go on vacation. Well . . . not so much. I worked Friday night--which for those of you who don't know--is our "show" night at work. We do a Vegas style burlesque show at 9pm every Friday night. I ended up with only one table that night, but it was a party of 12 bachelorette party and they had a fantastic time--and I managed to make pretty good money. I was at work late, but had plans to meet both Tanya and Terri and Chris at some point the next day.
On Saturday--I pulled a classic Heather. Friday afternoon I had my nails done and because they were wet I just threw my credit card into my purse. Saturday morning I got up, grabbed my phone and my wallet and headed to Hollywood Studios to meet Tanya and her daughter--no longer Baby V. I was all ready to renew my AP when I discovered I didn't have said credit card in my wallet. Ugh. I made plans to meet up with Tanya later that evening at Old Key West and headed home to hunt for my CC.
I found my card and headed for the MK parking lot. I wanted to get some photos from the boat of the new construction at the GF--so I didn't pull my usual stunt of parking at the Contemporary and walking to the MK. I renewed my AP at the TTC and got on the boat to the MK. (I never take the monorail from the TTC--I love the boat ride!)
Terri and Chris were waiting for Space Mountain to come back online so that they could use their FPs so I grabbed a plain hot dog and a bag of chips from the Lunching Pad. They are doing specialty hot dogs these days--a Philly hot dog and a taco hot dog--but it's still possible to get just a plain one, which is all I wanted. After I finished eating Terri and Chris were coming off of Space Mountain.
We talked about what to do and I suggested Pirates and Chris expressed an interest in riding the Liberty Belle--because he's never been on it! So we went first to the Liberty Belle and took a nice relaxing ride around Tom Sawyer Island! It was much more crowded than I expected, but it was Saturday and it was not a party night--so there were quite a few people in MK. New Fantasyland, which has been doing previews was closed for a Cast Member event--so I didn't get to see the new things that are open there.
We rode Pirates and waited about 30 minutes! I was surprised at the wait time--but there are new additions to Pirates! I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but if you loved the mermaids in Pirates 4, you are going to love the changes!
Next we went to see the Country Bears, which has been down for a rehab. They have put in new seating and I feel like a bit of the show has been cut down.
I grabbed a drink at Pecos Bill's and we headed back towards Main St. I was already tired and Terri was feeling a bit tired as well. We had ice cream from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and Terri and Chris decided to bail on dinner at the Plaza to go back to the hotel and rest and I headed out to find my car in the MK parking lot.
I heard from Tanya as I was making my way towards the car. I decided to go right to OKW to spend some time hanging out with her and Vanessa. We spent a lovely hour reconnecting and then I had to leave because I still needed to pack and pick up a script at Walmart.
I finally got home at about 8pm and started packing. Kenneth Cole--check! Michael Kors--check! Armani--check! (and everything else!)
Jese got held up at work and then got dragged out for a drink by our Sous Chef, so I finally picked him up at 2am ish. We sat around chatting for too long and then put our heads to the pillow at about an hour and a half before we had to get up to fly to New Orleans.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
So sorry that big booking came in after you'd already made plans, but good for you, sticking to your plans. 
My normal everyday computer routine!
Linear Mode
